AMBASSADE DE M. SAMUEL TURNER AUPRÈS DU TESCHOU-LAMA, AU THIBET ET OU BOUTAN

Paris: Dufour, 1803. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Fine/No Jacket, as issued. 24mo - over 5 - 5¾" tall. AMBASSADE DE M. SAMUEL TURNER AUPRÈS DU TESCHOU-LAMA, AU THIBET ET OU BOUTAN, Avec une Notice des événements qui s'y sont passés jusqu'e en 1793. Tome Premier. Translated from English and published in 1803 in Paris, with a large (21.5 cm x 26cm) fold-out map "Asie par Hérisson" by Beaublé fils from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and from Russia to Java Full calf with gilt title & ornaments to spine, 5" tall, 200 pages, marbled endpapers. Red ribbon page marker. No markings, no bookplates, no inscriptions. Binding is tight, pages are clean and bright except for a few small spots of foxing. Front free endpaper has open tear at hinge. In fine condition, nearly pristine after more than 200 years. "In 1783, at the opportunity presented by a new Panchen (or Teshoo) Lama, Bengal governor-general Warren Hastings sent a deputation to Tibet and Bhutan in the hope of promoting British-Indian trade across the Himalayas. Samuel Turner (1759-1802), an army officer in the East India Company, was appointed leader of the mission. His journal, offering first-hand descriptions of these countries, was originally published in 1800 and remained the only such English-language work for more than half a century. Assisted by the botanist and surgeon Robert Saunders and the surveyor and illustrator Samuel Davis, Turner interweaves geographical and scientific observations with descriptions of social and religious customs; the vivid account of his reception by the infant Panchen Lama is of particular note. The introduction sketches the history of Bengal-Bhutan relations and George Bogle's prior mission, while later sections deal with Tibet and the influence of China. This was and remains an invaluable account of eighteenth-century diplomacy." - Cambridge.org